Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Arts and Sciences, Vol. 5 No. 2, April 2018 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 89 P-ISSN 2362-8022 | E-ISSN 2362-8030 | www.apjeas.apjmr.com Impact of Money on Nigerian Politics: Exploring the General Elections in the Fourth Republic Babayo Sule 1 , Mohammed Kwarah Tal 2 1,2 Department of Political Science, Faculty of Humanities Management and Social Sciences, Federal University Kashere Gombe Gombe State, Nigeria 1 babayosule@gmail.com Date Received: January 17, 2018; Date Revised: April 11, 2018 Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Arts and Sciences Vol. 5 No.2, 89-98 April 2018 P-ISSN 2362-8022 E-ISSN 2362-8030 www.apjeas.apjmr.com Abstract - Money has been influential in determining the outcome of elections in almost all democratic regimes in the world. Developing democracies like that of Nigeria in particular witnessed the incidence of money being used openly during elections to secure victory by politicians. The problem is money politics or the excessive use of money in the electoral process leads to the emergence of selfish leaders who used the proceeds of power to enrich themselves and personalize public property for their own private advantage. This paper seeks to explore the causes and manifestations of money politics in Nigeria and also to examine the impact of money politics on General Elections in Nigeria during the Fourth Republic (1999-2015). The methodology used is qualitative method of data collection and analysis where some informants with an experience and classified information on the subject matter were consulted for interview and other primary documents in addition to secondary sources. The data obtained was interpreted for analysis and findings. The paper discovered that there was heavy use of money during General Elections and the outcome was affected by such brazen act given undue advantage to politicians who have the means to buy their way into power. Thus, the paper concludes that until the regulatory agencies responsible for monitoring of elections and sanctioning of offenders improve their efforts in minimizing excessive use of money in Nigeria’s politics, it will continue to produce incompetent leaders and this will lead to bad governance and abuse of power as well as misuse of national resources for private gain. Keywords: Money; Politics; Impact; Elections; Vote. INTRODUCTION Democracy is a system of government which requires a periodic election as agreed and set by the national laws of a given country that operates such system to enable for a peaceful transfer of power from one legitimate government to another. In doing so, politicians and political parties embark on an expensive venture of campaigning and other political activities which require massive cash backing and expenditure. This led to the emergence of money politics. The correlation between money and politics is very strong with influence on democratic rule specifically developing democracies like that of Nigeria. In Nigeria, sponsoring a candidate or a given political party either by the contestant himself or godfathers is a lucrative venture with a promising turnover. [1] Political parties and politicians have the sole purpose of electoral victory and winning power in a democratic contest which made them to utilize all their financial and human resources possession in achieving their goal including the excessive use of money both legally and illegally in the entire democratic process [2]. The politics of money determines who secure elective office and who have access to power in Nigeria’s General Elections. A group of sponsors called godfathers financed their anointed candidates called godsons in order to have access to corridors of power indirectly and control the government in power for lucrative contracts, kickbacks, juicy appointments and nepotism. Indeed, the impact of money on Nigerian politics totally subverts the electoral process swinging the pendulum towards the highest bidder. Indeed, one cannot attempt at contesting any elective office without being wealthy enough or having the cash back off of influential rich godfathers who will sponsor his campaign and electoral activities. The scenario above made Nigerian democracy and politics a faltering one influenced and determined by money [3]. Money politics in Nigeria was caused by many factors such as desperateness to win at all cost, political competition by elites, parties and godfathers to secure victory for wealth accumulation, high level of ignorance and low level of political socialisation in addition to political culture in Nigeria which gives merit to moneybags politics instead of integrity or performance. Money politics has many implications or impacts such as vote buying, rigging of elections,